April 2014 saw NorPower begin work on the erection of a new Trident based design overhead line in North East Sutherland.

This overhead line had been in planning for over two years with NorPower involved from March 2012. The erection of the line is necessary to carry the generation capacity of the Strathy North Wind Farm between a new 132kV sub-station at Dallangwell and the new Connagill 275kV sub-station.

The first NorPower work team began work erecting the 139 poles and 272 stays required for the 132kV overhead line which extends to over 12 km, with a further team starting in September to install the AAAC UPAS conductor and fibre optic carrier. The work was completed in early 2015.

The Sutherland environment and landscape presented challenges such as nestng birds and accessibility for vehicles transporting poles. Forward planning meant that measures were taken to avoid any disturbance of nesting birds and a helicopter was engaged to transport poles to required locations.